American steel — not overseas dumping — dominates Canadian imports, trade data shows

Federal trade figures show American steel makes up more than half of Canada’s imports of galvanized and coated steel, complicating Cleveland-Cliffs’ argument that an influx of cheap overseas steel is one of the top causes of Stelco layoffs.

Global Affairs Canada steel import data shows that 54.1 per cent of the country’s 625,726 tonnes of galvanized and coated steel sheet imports during the first nine months of 2026 came from the United States.

Stelco owner Cleveland-Cliffs has blamed the idling of its Hamilton, Ont., steel plant partly on what it describes as dumped overseas steel imports in Canada, arguing that Ottawa’s trade protections have failed to create a viable market for Canadian producers.

Colin Mang, assistant professor of economics at McMaster University, says the claim that offshore steel is being dumped into Canada does not reflect the latest trade figures. 

He says much of the imported steel comes from the United States and that import prices of galvanized and coated steel have actually risen over the last several months.

Still, Mang says Canada continues to import large quantities of steel even as domestic demand weakens, putting additional pressure on Canadian producers already struggling with declining exports to the United States.

Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves has argued that Canada’s galvanized steel market is too small to accommodate two domestic producers alongside what he called “an avalanche of imports.”

In an Oct. 9 letter to Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, Stelco president and general counsel Paul Simon blamed the company’s difficulties in part on the “market-depressing impact of dumped, offshore imports” and U.S. tariffs.

Simon acknowledged that Ottawa’s steel import restrictions, introduced in June 2025 and strengthened in December, had reduced some overseas imports. 

But he argued they had done little to protect the cold-rolled and coated steel products manufactured at Stelco’s Hamilton finishing operations.

In response, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly pointed to federal measures restricting overseas steel imports in an Oct. 22 letter to Stelco, including tighter quotas introduced in December 2025. Imports from the United States and Mexico remain exempt from those restrictions.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2026.